Rove Testifies for 5th Time in CIA Leak Case

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove enters Federal Court in Washington April 26, 2006. President Bush's top political adviser, Rove, will testify on Wednesday before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity, a source close to Rove said. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

This is off The Washington Post:

Top presidential adviser Karl Rove testified today before a federal grand jury investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity, appearing "voluntarily and unconditionally" at the request of the chief federal prosecutor, Rove's attorney said.

In a statement issued upon the conclusion of Rove's testimony at the federal courthouse in Washington, attorney Robert D. Luskin said the special counsel in the case, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had advised Rove that he was "not a target of the investigation." However, Luskin said Fitzgerald has not made any decision about charges.

Rove, President Bush's chief political strategist, went before the grand jury to answer questions about discussions his attorney had with Time magazine reporter Viveca Novak, a source close to Rove said earlier. Novak testified last year that she alerted Luskin in early 2004 that Rove had leaked information to her colleague, Matthew Cooper, about CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Luskin said his client testified "to explore matters raised since Mr. Rove's last appearance in October 2005." The attorney added, "In connection with this appearance, the special counsel has advised Mr. Rove that he is not a target of the investigation. Mr. Fitzgerald has affirmed that he has made no decision concerning charges. At the request of the special counsel, Mr. Rove will not discuss the substance of this testimony."

Novak wrote in Time in December that she mentioned to Luskin in early 2004 that the magazine's reporters were buzzing that his client was a source for a story by Cooper about Plame in July 2003. The tip prompted Luskin to set in motion a chain of events that led Rove and his lawyers to search phone logs and other material to determine whether Rove had talked to Cooper. It also eventually prompted Rove to revise statements he made to federal investigators.

Before Rove testified before the grand jury in October 2004, he maintained he did not recall talking to Cooper. Shortly before testifying, Luskin found an e-mail written by Rove to then-deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley in July 2003 in which Rove mentioned the conversation with Cooper. Rove testified that the e-mail jarred his memory.

Luskin has sought to convince Fitzgerald that Rove was guilty of nothing more than a bad memory and was not trying to cover up his role in the Plame case.

This is a real monkey wrench that has been thrown into this scandal. First, Time reporter Viveca Novak testifies before the grand jury and Fitzgerald that she talked to Rove's personal lawyer that she learned that Karl Rove was the source of Valerie Plame's leak to Time's Matthew Cooper. And yet, Rove claimed he never talked to Cooper, thus implying that Rove was not the source of the Valerie Plame leak. But now after Rove had testified before the grand jury, Luskin finds an email Rove sent to deputy NSA advisor Stephen Hadley, where Rove mentions his conversation with Cooper. And now Rove is going back to Fitzgerald and the grand jury claiming, "Oops, I forgot about that conversation?"

This is more than just an "Oops, I forgot" excuse. First, the Bush administration was angry at Ambassador Joe Wilson for criticizing their arguments that the U.S. needed to invade Iraq to destroy Saddam's WMDs--when U.S. intelligence fully knew that there were no WMDs. The only way to attack and discredit Wilson, and thus squash the criticisms, was to expose Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. This is a dirty trick--one that even a master political strategist such as Karl Rove would happily apply. The trouble here is that Karl Rove got caught leaking Valerie Plame's name--just as Scooter Libby was caught, and that VP Dick Cheney is probably feeling some heat in this scandal. Viveca Novak's grand jury testimony and the email to Stephen Hadley shows that Rove was involved in the leak (although at this point, the contents of the email have not been revealed). So now we get this excuse that Rove simply forgot about this conversation with Cooper.

I smell indictments coming down against Karl Rove.